You see it in the news with regularity in recent years: major hacks and blackmail cases facing companies and government agencies. Pretty scary! Online burglars can also misuse your data and data, which they can use to perform actions in your name. As a small or medium-sized business, you naturally want to avoid becoming a victim of this. How do you do that? We give some tips in this blog.
Do you want to be assured of a well-secured website, without having to worry about it or do any work for it yourself? Then let Monkey Vision design your new website for you. When you let us make your new website design, we immediately take all security aspects into account. Moreover, we make websites with WordPress: a CMS system with good security features.
Why does an SME get hacked?
Why are SME websites hacked at all? An SME is not a large party like a tax authority, hospital or educational institution. So what's a hacker really looking for in your Web site? A hacker may have several reasons to break into your website, of which these are the most common:
- De hacker wil webpagina’s of links op jouw website plaatsen. Zo creëert hij meer traffic naar zijn eigen website.
- The hacker can abuse your server and make it participate in a DDOS attack with the goal of taking down another website.
- The hacker can start spreading spam from your server. This is done through unsolicited emails. You know them: the viagra offers and other strange emails with sender you don't know. In most cases, these kinds of emails are spread from a hacked website.
- The hacker places phishing links on your website. Through these links, people land on ecommerce stores where (after a purchase) access is gained to their data, such as credit card and/or PIN information. With all its consequences.
Preventing hacks
How can you prevent a hack like this? If you have a new website design in Remote by Monkey Vision Vision, your website is secured anyway. That is also a big advantage of having a website designed by a professional web design agency: everything is thought of, from web design to security.
What are aspects you can take into account yourself, or what we can take into account for you if you let us create your website?
Strong password
Scripts allow hackers to guess your password. These scripts can be used to quickly try all kinds of combinations. The longer and more complex your password, the more combinations are possible and the more difficult it is (even with a script) to guess.
A strong password consists of:
- A not obvious combination
- Small print
- Capital Letters
- Figures
- About 15 characters
- Symbols, such as !@#$%*()_+ etc.
And this is what you do not:
- An obvious word-digit combination like "test123" or "ww12345"
- Your username, ¨admin¨ or ¨administrator¨
- The name of family, your partner, pet
- The same password you already use for several accounts
- A date of birth (of yourself, partner or child)
2. Strong username
A strong username is also important. Never use obvious admin or administrator usernames or simply your own name, for example. Use a combination of numbers, lower and upper case letters and symbols. Then also change your username "Admin" immediately. This is automatically created when you use a WordPress CMS and all hackers know that.
A well-secured website without looking back? Then get a website design in Remote by Monkey Vision! Contact us
Regular backups
Make sure you backup your files and database regularly. Have you fallen victim to a hack? Then use your backup to restore the most recent version of your website.
4. Secure web hosting
Your web hosting is an important part of your website's security. A good web host secures the server and keeps an eye on whether your website visitors may be unwanted. Often websites are placed by the a web host in a shared environment, where multiple websites run on a single server. If one of these websites is hacked, the hacker will also have access to the other websites in this shared environment. A good web host is protected against this. So our tip is to check with your web host if you are not sure about this.
Website with good security
There are many other aspects that come with proper security, such as regularly updating themes and plugins and customizing WordPress content. When you have a website design in Remote by Monkey Vision, we take into account all these aspects that are important for good security.
Wondering if your website is secure or want it better secured? We can check and improve it for you or create a completely new website design: it's just what you want! Let us know if you have any concerns about this and we will be happy to discuss them with you.
